#26: The Last One Before the Apocalypse

Look some of us have deadlines and sometimes that gets in the way of our weekly "will they or won't they (survive)" newsletter. So last week becomes this week and look at that, we're five days from the biggest election of any of our lifetimes and so, even more specifically than usual, the point of this week's letter is to get you to vote on Tuesday. I don't need to tell you who to vote for. If you subscribed to this, chances are you're going to choose wisely.

But if you DO have doubts, or this was forwarded to you from your goddamn tree-hugging cousin, then let me first welcome you, and also beg you to consider the fate of our children, and grandchildren, and our planet, because -- unless Elon has another announcement this week or somebody tripled NASA's budget -- we don't have a way to get off this rock, nor anywhere else to live. 

And so I challenge each of you -- think of five friends or family members or co-workers who might be undecided or leaning Trump, and forward this email to them. Five people. That's it. You know them, I know them. Now's the moment. We'll never get it back. Do something. Make a difference. Or at least try to. And let's make next week's newsletter much more optimistic.

On to the news!


1. This is Senator Ron Johnson, Republican, Wisconsin. He's an elected official. Let's change that on Tuesday. - Huffington Post

"“The jury’s out (on climate change),” Johnson said. “The models have not been predictive. They were predicting much higher temperatures, and that hasn’t panned out yet.”
When pressed, he admitted that he is a climate change skeptic, but added that “it’s not the right question.”"

+ MY NOTES: Vote vote vote vote vote vote vote


2. Who's lobbying these elected officials on climate change: bad and good. - Harvard Business Review

"Consider the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the country’s largest lobbying organization, and its affiliates, which spent $90 million lobbying around climate change legislation in 2014 — more than any organization, based on our analysis. That same year, one of the highest-polluting utilities, Southern Company, spent an estimated $9 million on climate change lobbying. "

+ MY NOTES: Vote vote vote vote vote vote


3. World on track to lose two-thirds of wild animals by 2020. TWO-THIRDS. - The Guardian

“The analysis, the most comprehensive to date, indicates that animal populations plummeted by 58% between 1970 and 2012, with losses on track to reach 67% by 2020. Researchers from WWF and the Zoological Society of London compiled the report from scientific data and found that the destruction of wild habitats, hunting and pollution were to blame."

+ MY NOTES: Vote vote vote vote vote vote


4. The battle to bring offshore wind power to America - Gizmodo

"The United States has some of the best offshore wind resources in the world. According to the Department Energy, our “technical offshore potential” is more than 2,000 gigwatts (GW) of power, which translates to double the electricity generated by all oil, coal, and gas-fired power plants last year. Harnessing that full potential would take a mind-boggling number of turbines, but even a fraction of the energy contained in stiff offshore breezes could go a long way toward meeting high power demands along densely populated coastlines."

+ MY NOTES: Vote vote vote vote vote


5. And what happens if you don't vote, and Trump is elected? - Lux Research

"As the world looks to reduce carbon emissions following the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, Clinton’s plans would keep the U.S. emissions on their current downward trajectory, while Trump’s would send them rising again, according to Lux Research. All told, estimated emissions would be 16% higher after two terms of Trump’s policies than they would be after two terms of Clinton’s, amounting to 3.4 billion tons greater emissions over the next eight years."

+ MY NOTES: Vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote



OTHER SHIT I THAT SHOULD MAKE YOU VOTE

Long read: when your job is climate change and you're terrified to say how bad it really is

The beginning of the end for coal: unless we don't vote

Magical thinking won't stop climate change, but voting can

Elon Musk wants to make your new roof solar AND sexy

Oil drilling possibly responsible for biggest quake in history I mean folks what else do I need to say here

Renewables made up half of new net capacity added last year, will stop if you don't vote

Electric cars will clean the air AND save us billions, unless you don't vote

The human epoch: for better or worse (worse)